Tuesday, March 06, 2007

I mentioned some time ago that my blog was being copied and used in a splog. As the content was used to farm Google Adwords, I felt that this was done in breach of the terms of the Creative Commons licence I use. I started the process of sending a DMCA notice of take down, but I never got around to it, it always felt wrong (or even hypocritical) for me to use something which I otherwise despise.

Fortunately, the sploggers involved have been probably getting in trouble with their host, and so they have started offering a link to take-down content. While I was suspicious about it, I decided to send a request. What do you know? All of the content has been removed!

Anyway, this has got me thinking about the regulation of online content, and I feel that this is further proof for the growth of alternative online regulation, the growth in a bottom-up approach to regulating content that bypasses legislation and the courts, and has put in place a very effective norm-setting system, enforced by the users. Granted, this system does not work against things like spam, but I believe that most practices have some form of regulation in the shape of community enforcement of some sort (not vigilantism, mind).